Birds in Atlantic Forest Fragments in North-East Brazil
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Cotinga 20 Birds in Atlantic Forest fragments in north-east Brazil Luís Fábio Silveira, Fábio Olmos and Adrian J. Long Cotinga 20 (2003): 32–46 Durante o mês de outubro de 2001 os autores percorreram 15 fragmentos florestais no Estado de Alagoas, Brasil. O objetivo principal foi localizar novas populações e obter mais dados sobre os táxons endêmicos do ‘Centro Pernambuco’. Foram realizados censos em cada um dos fragmentos, que também foram analisados quanto ao estado geral de conservação. Discute-se a presença de espécies-chave, como grandes frugívoros ou aquelas sensíveis à fragmentação ou às mudanças na estrutura da vegetação. Os dois fragmentos mais importantes, com relação ao número de espécies encontrado e o número de táxons endêmicos, estão localizados na Usina Serra Grande (Mata do Pinto e Mata do Engenho Coimbra), onde foram registrados 16 táxons endêmicos e/ou ameaçados de extinção. Recomenda-se pesquisa taxonômica urgente, que procure evidenciar os táxons endêmicos do ‘Centro Pernambuco’, além de uma efetiva proteção aos fragmentos e às aves que ainda os habitam, uma maior vigilância contra a caça, a retirada de madeira e o desmatamento e um programa de reflorestamento que procure conectar os fragmentos mais próximos entre si. Sponsored by NBC In contrast to the Amazon forest, the Brazilian pernambucensis, T. aethiops distans and Iodopleura Atlantic Forest stretches along a broad latitudinal pipra leucopygia55,61. band, with little longitudinal variation. This The ‘Serra do Mar’ centre of avian endemism22 latitudinal gradient, from c.6oS to 32S, is further covers the Atlantic Forest from Rio Grande do Norte diversified by the montane ranges born of intense (c.7S) to Rio Grande do Sul (c.32S), with two main Cenozoic tectonic activity51 that occur throughout divisions: the narrow belt of coastal and montane much of the region. It is little wonder that tropical forests, and the Araucaria forests of southern Brazil forest in such setting is an important centre of and nearby Argentina and Paraguay. Despite endemism. Over 90% of known frogs and 70% of forming a recognisable entity, the Serra do Mar reptiles recorded in the Atlantic Forest are centre can be further divided into several endemic26,40. Among the breeding avifauna, c.200 ‘subcentres’ characterised by assemblages of recognised species are endemic to the Atlantic Forest endemic birds21,68. region31. Endemism levels are probably even greater The forested belt north of the rio São Francisco as several taxa currently regarded as subspecies is one such area, generally referred to as the may prove to be biological (BSC) and/or phylogenetic ‘Pernambuco centre’12,57. It includes both the coastal (PSC) species once detailed taxonomic studies are forests and complex transitional area between them undertaken. Examples of such from north-east and drier habitats inland. The Pernambuco centre Brazil include Thamnophilus caerulescens is considered an area of interchange between biota Figure 1. Extensive areas of forest have been destroyed to Figure 2. Usina Serra Grande contains one of the largest make way for sugarcane plantations, leaving the landscape and best-preserved remnants of montane forest in Alagoas; heavily fragmented (Luiz Claudio Marigo) it harbours a considerable number of endemic and globally threatened species (Luiz Claudio Marigo) 32 Cotinga 20 Birds in Atlantic Forest fragments in north-east Brazil Ta b le 1. Endemic forest birds of the Pernambuco centre and nearby highland forests of Ceará state, Brazil. Threat categories follow BirdLife International11. Nomenclature and status of endemic taxa is based on general catalogues or recent revisions8,33,49,55,56,70 and specimens housed in the collections of Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo and Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. Taxon Distribution Status Tinamus solitarius pernambucensis Berla, 1946 Alagoas and Pernambuco Near Threatened Mitu mitu Linnaeus, 1766 Alagoas Extinct in the wild Penelope superciliaris alagoensis Nardelli, 1993 Alagoas - Odontophorus capueira plumbeicollis Cory, 1915 Alagoas to Ceará - Leptodon forbesi (Swann, 1922) Alagoas and Pernambuco Critical Pyrrhura anaca (Gmelin, 1788) Ceará, Pernambuco and Alagoas - Phaethornis ochraceiventris camargoi Grantsau, 1988 Pernambuco, Alagoas - Momotus momota marcgraviana Pinto & Camargo, 1961 Alagoas and Paraíba - Picumnus limae Snethlage, 1924 Ceará - Picumnus fulvescens Stager, 1961 Pernambuco and Paraíba - Picumnus exilis pernambucensis Zimmer, 1947 Alagoas and Pernambuco - Dendrocincla fuliginosa taunayi Pinto, 1939 Alagoas to Pernambuco - Lepidocolaptes fuscus atlanticus (Cory, 1916) Pernambuco to Ceará - Synallaxis infuscata Pinto, 1950 Pernambuco and Alagoas Critical Automolus leucophthalmus lammi Zimmer, 1947 Alagoas and Paraíba - Philydor novaesi Teixeira & Gonzaga, 1983 Alagoas Critical Xenops minutus alagoanus Pinto, 1954 Alagoas to Paraíba - Sclerurus caudacutus caligineus Pinto, 1954 Alagoas - Thamnophilus caerulescens pernambucensis Naumburg, 1937 Alagoas and Pernambuco - Thamnophilus caerulescens cearensis (Cory, 1919) Ceará - Thamnophilus aethiops distans Pinto, 1954 Alagoas and Pernambuco - Myrmotherula snowi Teixeira & Gonzaga, 1985 Alagoas and Pernambuco Critical Terenura sicki Teixeira & Gonzaga, 1983 Alagoas and Pernambuco Endangered Cercomacra laeta sabinoi Pinto, 1939 Alagoas and Pernambuco - Pyriglena leuconota pernambucensis Zimmer, 1931 Pernambuco, Alagoas and (perhaps) Paraíba - Myrmeciza ruficauda soror Pinto, 1940 Alagoas to Paraíba Endangered Conopophaga melanops nigrifrons Pinto, 1943 Alagoas to Paraíba - Iodopleura pipra leucopygia Salvin, 1885 Alagoas, Pernambuco and Paraíba Endangered Phylloscartes ceciliae Teixeira, 1987 Alagoas and Pernambuco Critical Platyrhynchus mystaceus niveigularis Pinto, 1954 Alagoas to Paraíba - Hemitriccus mirandae Snethlage, 1925 Alagoas and Ceará Vulnerable Hemitriccus zosterops naumburgae (Zimmer, 1945) Alagoas to Paraíba - Schiffornis turdinus intermedius Pinto, 1954 Alagoas to Paraíba - Hemithraupis flavicollis melanoxantha (Lichtenstein, 1823) Pernambuco, Alagoas - Tangara fastuosa Lesson, 1831 Alagoas to Paraíba Endangered Tangara cyanocephala corallina (Berlepsch, 1903) Pernambuco and Alagoas - Tangara cyanocephala cearensis Cory, 1916 Ceará - Caryothraustes canadensis frontalis Hellmayr, 1905 Ceará, Pernambuco and Alagoas - of the Atlantic and Amazon forests57, with typically (Murici, Alagoas) supports the most threatened Amazonian forms occurring alongside Atlantic birds in the Americas77. Forest taxa18,54,76. Birds are the group with the Forest destruction in the Pernambuco centre largest number of north-east Brazilian began five centuries ago, driven mostly by sugarcane representatives of Amazonian species, most being plantations and mills (usinas), and cattle ranching18. disjunct, endemic populations currently treated as Aside from forest clearance, extraction and hunting subspecies (Table 1). Other taxa, such as depleted and even extirpated species, e.g. a Crypturellus strigulosus and Pteroglossus population of Bare-faced Curassow Crax inscriptus, have not diverged morphologically from fasciolata53,69. Human impact has been sufficiently their Amazonian counterparts. Overall, 38 bird taxa pervasive that most remaining forest is second are recognised as endemic to the Pernambuco centre growth, occupying formerly cultivated or heavily (Table 1). logged areas4. Compared to other sectors of the Atlantic Forest, Initially, the usinas planted sugarcane in the the Pernambuco centre is the one that has been most plains along the main rivers draining to the sea, severely impacted by humans, as well as being the and consequently riverine forests and wetlands are least known and protected18–20,35,37,39. It is long gone. The mills used wood for power, thus unsurprising that the region harbours the largest deforestation increased in the 19th century when number of threatened birds in Brazil, and one area steam machinery was introduced. The tablelands 33 Cotinga 20 Birds in Atlantic Forest fragments in north-east Brazil Alhough Europeans occupied much of the Brazilian coast within a comparatively short period, it was in the north-east that colonisation had the most damaging impacts on the Atlantic Forest. Over 90% of forests in the Pernambuco centre have been cleared and the remnants are mostly small and isolated65, a different situation from that in south- east Brazil, where the coastal mountains and poor coastal soils forced large-scale agriculture elsewhere, permitting the survival of relatively large forest areas that may act as sources13,24,39,59. The forests of the Pernambuco centre originally covered c.56,000 km2 or 4.6% of the Atlantic Forest complex. Main forest types were transitional inland forests (34.9%), semideciduous forests (28.4%) and open ombrophyllous forests (20.5%). Data from 1995 satellite images showed only 2,124 km2 of forests remained or only 3.76% of the Pernambuco centre45. The situation has deteriorated since, as forest clearance has continued even in ‘protected’ areas such as Murici (pers. obs.). It has been suggested that the Atlantic Forest avifauna is pre-adapted to withstand forest fragmentation because of the persistence of diverse communities in patches of reduced area7,13,14,58 but the evidence is equivocal2, and it has been argued Figure 1. Localities surveyed (see also Table 2): 1. Usina that those Atlantic Forest species more sensitive to Santo Antonio 1; 2. Usina Santo Antonio 2; 3. Fazenda human impacts became extinct without